Film legend Martin Scorsese joins calls for return of Dylan Skolnick to Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre

More than a month after the firing of Dylan Skolnick as co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre, the Huntington movie house and cultural center founded by his parents, ongoing calls for his reinstatement from across Long Island are now also coming from Hollywood.

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has stepped up in support of Skolnick with a passionate defense of the need for independent film hubs like the center, and for people like Skolnick, who was removed in September by the Cinema Arts board of directors, to run them.

"Independently run movie theaters, started and programmed by people who give their lives to the cinema, are like beacons in the darkness," Scorsese said in a statement posted on RogerEbert.com. 

"We need them now more than ever. The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington was one of those places until a few weeks ago," Scorcese continued. "And then Dylan Skolnick was ejected from the place he and his family had built from the ground up, brick by brick, film by film."

Newsday reached out to the director's representatives for comment, but they had not responded by late Tuesday afternoon.

Skolnick, the son of the cinema's founders, the late Vic Skolnick and his wife, Charlotte Sky, had led the theater since 2010.

Outrage and demands to have his firing reversed started almost immediately after he was let go as co-director Sept. 1. Threats of a theater boycott and canceled memberships followed, along with community rallies and at least one Hollywood studio pulling a film event off the Cinema Arts event calendar.

The eight-member board removed Skolnick, 58, over alleged "serious misconduct."

In an emailed statement reported in Newsday at the time, the Cinema Arts Centre said it had "parted ways" with Skolnick "after discovering and communicating to him what it believed to be, and continues to believe was, serious misconduct." The email did not elaborate on the alleged misconduct, according to the Newsday story.

"This was a difficult decision given the family's history," the Cinema Arts statement continued, "but please keep in mind that major Board decisions like this are not made hastily."

Skolnick has denied any wrongdoing.

He has said he was fired for working as a freelance film booker on company time — all to help supplement his $75,000 salary. He, along with supporters in the industry have called such freelance work common. What he did, Skolnick has said, did not constitute a conflict of interest, but rather increased visibility for the cinema.

A spokesman for the Cinema Arts Centre on Tuesday said he would reach out to board members for comment, but by late in the day, had not provided an update to Newsday.

Skolnick was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. Earlier this month he told Newsday: "It's hard to think of any sort of silver lining, but it has been amazing that people have been so supportive, and so many people are here for me and for the cinema."

Actor Edie Falco, a Northport High School graduate who played "Carmela" to the late James Gandolfini's "Tony" on the HBO series, "The Sopranos," recalled in an interview with IndieWire, an online publication, how growing up, she and her friends would see obscure movies at Cinema Arts Centre.

"That's what makes Dylan's removal so heartbreaking. To pull him out of a place that was built by his family, and that has meant so much to me and my friends and so many others is impossible to imagine. What is that place even, without Dylan?"

In his statement, Scorcese said that while the Cinema Arts Centre still exists, "the heart of the place has been torn away and the community around it has been shattered. There's only one way to turn the situation around. A simple solution: Bring Dylan Skolnick back to the Cinema Arts Centre."

Newsday's Rafer Guzman contributed to this story.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.